Lou at age 71

I was born in Chicago in 1942 to two secular Jewish Holocaust  refugees.

I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland in a Gentile neighborhood.

                                  Lou at age 4

I went “home” to college in 1960 (Reed College in Portland, Oregon), and have lived on the West Coast ever since.

After two years at Reed, I dropped out and worked to save money to go to Europe, which I did in 1963 for nearly four months.

When I came back, I moved to San Francisco, attended San Francisco State and worked at various jobs, eventually becoming a computer operator from 1965 to 1970.  In 1970 I went to school to learn computer programming, and worked in IT (then called Data Processing) from 1970 to 2001, going from Programmer to Systems Administrator.  But in 2001 the Internet forced me out of stand-alone computer work entirely.

I was psychotic for 1½ years in the mid-1960s, but I eventually found my way back.  [I’ve added two essays on psychosis and spirituality]

I met my wife in 1969 at her sister’s boutique in San Francisco; we were married in 1970 and we have been together ever since.

We have two children, a boy and a girl.  And one grandchild, a girl.

I met Mrs. Staveley, a direct student of Gurdjieff in 1971 and I have participated in Work activities ever since.

Lou Gottlieb                          4/5/2022